#F1 Race Review: 2016 FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DE ESPANA PIRELLI

Brilliant weather for the Spanish Grand Prix as the sun glittered in the Catalonian sky and the wind gusted the occasional cloud about the horizon. Another meeting of the big chiefs as luminaries including Dr Zetsche and Marchionne had a pre-race meeting about which no one would say anything. Bernie mocked them as having no clue what they really wanted on the grid, but at the moment they pose a real threat to his continued rule of the sport. Bad news to for Maurizio Arrivabene as Marchionne has now publicly stated that his job is safe.

With a car that might not break, it’s possible there will be an actual race (sort of) for P1 between the Mercedes, and definite pressure on Lewis to get a decent start, his recent record along those lines being somewhat less than stellar. Ferrari vs Red Bull and Mad Max vs Danny Boy also gonna be potentially quite a scrap. The only top team to have Softs left is Williams, for Massa. Massa vs Symonds also quite the interesting thing as Big Pat served up a healthy heaping of blame for his driver, whilst Massa (rather correctly) pointed out catching a slowing Alonso at the apex of T9 would ruin many a lap and not having a plan for that was rather shortsighted, given, y’know, reality. Though strategy has not been the forte of Williams of late.

Summary
Well, there’s no denying the start was quite interesting, but much like the Spanish Inquisition, no one saw that coming. Rosberg grabbbing the outside through T1 and Hamilton coming back between T3 and T4 on the inside only to be squeezed onto the grass, which sent him hurtling into his teammate and setting comments sections alight across the internet. With 2 weeks and a spreadsheet it’s possible you could log every pundits reaction, but regardless of stewards decision, the team as a whole have called it a racing incident, which is the proper view, IMO.

Rashomon anyone? Anyone looking for a good breakdown go see Anthony Davidson on Sky post race breakdown. In particular he pointed out that Rosberg started with his car in the incorrect mode, and had to change his race mode out of T3 as his car was harvesting, which yielded Hamilton’s advantageous closing speed and crucially took him wide adn distracted him as he looked left to set the dial. That motion also gave Hamilton his look up the inside towards T4.But please, feel free to argue until the end of time as the commentariat certainly did, through the first third of the race. In fact, at times it was difficult to believe that the race had continued, though the Safety Car was in lap 3, with Ricciardo on it with a good restart and the Ferrari’s trailing the Red Bulls, who were faced with the defensive battle against the Ferrari’s that was expected, and a fascinating strategic battle about to unfold. Just rather surprisingly without the Mercedes in front of them.

But before they could get to terms with Red Bull, Ferrari first had to get round Sainz, who had snuck into P3 during all the confusion. Once that happened, Sainz continued to play guinea pig, pitting a lap before Ricciardo who had maintained the race lead. Red Bull pitted in sequence starting lap 11 both onto the Medium tyre and Verstappen tje lap after Ricciardo. Raikkonen covered off the Red Bull undercut while Vettel stayed out for a longer run on Softs where he continued to turn faster laps. Until lap 16, when Ferrari decided to bring a halt to the fun, putting him onto the Mediums as well.

A nice oil fire for Hulkenberg lap 22 distracted everyone from the Mercedes brouhaha, and once that excitement was sorted the commentariat seemed to realise a proper race was underway, one in which the winning team wasn’t known ahead of time. It was clear that their reflexes were rusty but as the laps fell away the old habits came back and the excitement built steadily.

The first round of pit stops settled, Bottas now ahead of Sainz, where they would stay for the rest of the race, in P5 and P6 respectively, the strategic implications of Vettel’s long run made themselves felt as he pulled himself into DRS range on Verstappen lap 24, though unable to get round the Red Bull due to their exceptional performance in S3, which gave them just the breathing room they needed.

Perhaps responding to the strategy they anticipated from Ferrari, Red Bull unexpectedly brought Ricciardo in lap 28, onto the Soft tyre. Vettel responded covering off Ricciardo whilst Max and Kimi stayed out on what was thought at the beginning of the race to be the optimal strategy. Gutierrez looked good for Haas, hovering around P8 and it was a rough day at the office for Grosjean, who was constantly having to fight his way through traffic.

It was also looking very rosy for McLaren with both Alonso and Button on for a points finish by the halfway mark of the race.

Verstappen led the way for the leading duo till lap 35 when he boxed for another set of Mediums. Raikkonen followed suit and it was clear now that Vettel and Ricciardo would be 3 stopping against the 2 stoppers Raikkonen and Verstappen. But what was also obvious , was that the new Medium was immediately faster than the Softs that Ricciardo and Vettel were playing on.

Ferrari brought in Sebastian as a result, but Red Bull opted to leave Ricciardo hanging off the front till lap 43, when they boxed him for his last set of tyres, Mediums 5 laps younger than Vettels. Of course the result of all that was that, Vettel and Ricciardo were now running P3 and P4, waiting for the tyres to go off as Verstappen continued to trundle around in the lead with Kimi unable to make any kind of headway, even with DRS.

The Saubers got into a bit of a tiff, round about lap 44 with with one of them going wide out of T1 as they scrapped for the remains at the back of the race and with that distraction done, it began to look increasingly likely that Max Verstappen might actually be able to hold on for the win.

Alonso departed the race lap 47 with unexplained car trouble, but with no safety car needed the gap slowly closed between the 2 pairs making the top 4.

It was Ricciardo making the most of his fresh tyres and by 10 laps to go it was a tense defensive battle for Vettel. Lap 60 was decisive as Riciardo got up the inside into T1 but couldn’t keep it on the track, letting Vettel retake the position and giving him a bit of a breather. The battle also cost the pair of them time, and it was now down to Verstappen defending against Kimi the last 5 laps.

The Iceman had no real chance however, as it was clear that the Ferrari was losing traction on exits, making it impossible for him to catch Max even with DRS. And Verstappen responded brilliantly, by not making a single mistake and taking the win for Red Bull, his first drive for the team and also the youngest ever driver to win a Grand Prix. A late puncture took Ricciardo out of any podium chance and both he and Vettel rued the switch to the 3 stop strategy that took them out of a chance for the win. Ricciardo seemed a bit more bothered post race, but it’s equally likely Red Bull thought they were defending P1 with that move rather than handing victory to their new media sensation.

Further back it was Massa making a late charge to P8 and a nice recovery, while Perez serenely sailed through to P7 making good the update to Force India’s car. Brilliant race for Sainz, forgettable for Kvyat who got stuck behind the Ricciardo and Vettel late. Also forgettable for Haas, with Gutierrez losing out on a points position late in the race and Grosjean struggling with brake issues in his race,eventually retiring lap 56.

Strategically Red Bull outdid Ferrari, but not by much and it’s clear that the Ferrari is the faster of the cars in race trim, but with the Renault engine upgrade coming next race that may no longer be the case and the Scuderia may have their hands full as the season progresses.

Postscript

Official Stewards decision was no further action, but fairly sure that won’t stop you lot from apportioning blame anyway so have fun.

Thanks for stopping by and play nice in the comments! Like that’ll do any good this week. *Sigh*

In one of those satisfying turns of events the cosmos throws out occasionally, the original young Red Bull “kid”, who was the subject of some blue-tinged abuse from an older driver over his driving standard, is now a old-man-serial-ranter himself. Funny.

I wondered why you came up with that song RR until I played the vid and remembered the lyrics:

“And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you’re going to fall
Tell ’em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call”

A hookah smoking caterpillar – oooh you are naughty! Lewis probably had the faster car this weekend and could have won easily. Poor old lewis. He talked about rope-a-dope a few weeks ago and maybe it has backfired.

Great write-up Matt and thanks..yep,noticed that sky lost its focus as the Mercs hit but the Little Ant pulled it back wiith a great breakdown of the bump. As for mini Joss,the kid did good but i do fear for Kimi as he seems to have lost the eye of the tiger.

Yeah, thought so too, but it was never in the cards, even for Vettel. The only person who could’ve caught them and passed them was Kvyat, hysterically enough as he was lapping 1:26’s when he caught up to the Ricciardo/Vettel battle. Otherwise the tyres weren’t far enough apart to do anyone any good and RB in S3 meant that Ferrari would never get by down the straight towards T1, barring a mistake from RB.

It’s the same engine / power unit / whatever you want to call it! Why can’t Red Bull fans take a lesson from Vettel and actually read the relevant regulations? It’s tiresome to read so much mis-information…

You rely too much on the English media for your information. Try to see and listen to other media expertise from around the world. They have other views on the subject.
Is Anthony Davidson’s opinion the mother of all opinions? Doubt it.
Chill out @charliebrown, we’re here to post our opinions and have a bit of fun, hopefully.
But Cheatburg probably best describes Bling Bling. When he pushes off Nico in Austin and Suzuka in the first corner?
Any dingbat can see that.

And what are those privileges? What has Hamilton that warranted a reprimand from the team? Rosberg’s move in Spa was clearly a stupid and reckless move as that move was never going to come off. And then to admit to the team that he could’ve backed out, but chose not to, then yes his dumb ass deserved what came his way.

And as for my bigoted comment, I stand by it. My history of post that you’re claiming is bigoted, was purely in response to people like you and I will continue to do the same whenever I see any such comment.

Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda called the incident “stupid” and blamed Hamilton for being “too aggressive”.
He’s the same guy that reprimanded Nico after Spa. Let’s see if he continues to denounce in public your beloved like he did to Nico. If he doesn’t, then i rest my case about privileges.

Those were strong statements from Niki, because that is saying Lewis was stupid for being too aggressive.
Guess what, Lewis should have backed out and he didn’t, chose not to, then yes his dumb ass deserved what came his way, fully knowing that his speed advantage would most likely still allow him to pass Nico no matter what, on that corner.

“And as for my bigoted comment, I stand by it. My history of post that you’re claiming is bigoted, was purely in response to people like you and I will continue to do the same whenever I see any such comment.”

I guess this is your attempt to justify your bigotry. Hitler had a few of those.

“The wounds of calumny, the reproaches of the proud, the venom of the bigoted, the treachery of the false, and the weakness of the true, we have known in our measure”

Lewis has never knocked Cheatberg off the track before. Austin they barely even touched . Cheatberg hasn’t got the pure skill of Hamilton that’s’ why in 20 years of racing each other he has never beaten Lewis in a racing year so resorts to cheating = So much the cerebral driver!! 🙂

some on here are saying that some driver resorts to cheating because of being unable to beat his team mate.
cheating is not something new to F1 and will never be, not only by drivers but also by a teams.
there were some that cheated and kept their cob shut about it, and their were some that cheated but could not keep their cob shut about it and were discovered to have cheated because they lied about it even before they were asked questions about their cheating, anybody remember a Lulu and a Ryan having a go at misleading everybody and his dog in 2009?

what else do you expect them at Lulu’s number one fan club to say?.
as far as I am concerned it is a right of yours to post cheatburg to your hearts content, and I will not regard you as a “moron” but as oneeyed hamfosu.

F1 Always
I don’t think you should be throwing insults at people simply making their views heard . I am not a dingbat who is influenced by the media. If you were not yourself influenced by the media (and obvious dislike of Hamilton) why do you like to refer to him as Bling?
I watched the Sky analysis which did not sway me . It only confirmed what majority of people have voted on the various in that Nico Cheatberg was at fault and back to causing collisions as he did back in Spa 2014i, namely to make sure Lewis cannot overtake him in WDC . I bet in Monaco I bet in 2 weeks Cheatberg gets back to his gamesmanship ways again by aborting his qualifying lap so no one can set there’s as he did 2 years ago.

FYI Lewis never pushed Cheatberg off the track in Austin. He was aggressive but took the racing line otherwise I am sure the stewards would have had something to say about it .
Anyway, the reason why Cheatberg ( oh cerebral one! who has never won a WDC and won’t this year !) lost the race in Austin was Lewis was chasing him down rapidly and, if you remember a gust of wind blew him off the track 

Charliebrown
As far as insults go, i guess moron is normal verbiage to you?!
But i am glad that you kept your promise and continue using Cheatburg on your posts, because that shows that there isn’t any hint of moronic behavior in it. Right?
You mentioned Anthony Davidson which i actually like and respect, but as with any former F1 driver, you have disparate points of view.
Just rewind all the past stewards decisions and i think you can easily see what i mean. Most of them were past F1 drivers and the consistency of their decisions are a lot of the times challenged, simply because you have 5 people and you have 10 different views on it.
To you, Austin he was “just” aggressive, to me he pushed Nico off the track, if Nico hadn’t taken evasive action they would have crashed.
If you look at the images of this race, the difference in speed coming off corner 3, meant that Nico would have always been passed even if he defended the inside line. Someone like Bling Bling…i mean His Holly Highness , Sir Lewis the most perfect driver ever Hamilton, should have known. But his usual aggressive style caught him out this time.

After watching Ant Davidson’s analysis I think Rosberg wasn’t in the “wrong” strategy mode. He obviously gave himself more power off the start to get past Hamilton, then by the time he got to turn 3 it had ran out, hence the re-charge light. Good strategy by Rosberg initally but got caught out in the end. The incident culminating from Nico’s decision to choose that mode from the start, and Hamilton’s desparation to get back past him just goes to show the desparation they both had to be leading the race after the first lap. The top four battle just proved how difficult it is to get past at Barcelona, and I think they’re both as culpable as each other to be honest.
On a side note all these Cheatburg and Bling Blings really need to stop. Are we in kindergarten here? I’m embarrassed to visit this site sometimes!
Stewards decided it was a racing incident. End of, that’s racing somethimes

That’s a good point tommo, with the lack of ship to shore radio its upto the drivers to work out the best power mode and what you say makes a lot of sense. I made the mistake of watching the footage in slow motion and it really distorts the reality of the gap. It was always going to close and sadly this time it took out the two leaders,I don’t buy the teams and drivers standard PR speech as I fear a massive rise in tension between the team mates

Fully agree with you on the constant ‘bling bling, Cheatburg, Colgate kid etc” needs to stop. We may not like a particular driver, but doesn’t mean we can’t respect them enough to refer to them by their bloody name!

Re the start. I too was a little suspicious about the race start settings. Listening to what Lewis said, that they always chose the most powerful setting for the race start. It puzzles me that ROS somehow forgot to do that, despite having the start instructions tapped to his steering wheel. So has he somehow used a restricted mode at the start? Because in theAnt Davidson analysis, he pointed out that in Russia, ROS had the correct settings then.

Fully agree tommo and Fortis, these names are not needed to make a point. Yep don’t buy the ‘I forgot’ get out statement. What ever the setting was it worked upto a point as the traction out of turn one was bloody good,I didn’t see if the harvest light was on at that point but that said without the contact it was always going to be a heavily defended first lap if that was the case, am I right in thinking that the recovery system must be empty as they do the warm-up lap and can only harvest during the run up to the start?

@Matt Petruska, You are right about harvesting also happening off throttle and I was wrong in saying harvesting is only done under braking. but when I stated so I was talking from another perspective and in answer to something different. still my apologises.
My post about (on the racing start grid) driver power selection and that Nico “could not” have possibly selected the wrong setting with his resultant start stands, and as somebody said on here, I am 10000% sure of what I said, this regardless of what others think or describes/defines/labels my statements. what the totonator said and Ant Davidson picked on (Niko selecting the wrong setting) was right but has been totally misleading (read me about having to separate/sieve the wheat from the chaff) when it comes to what is pumped out to us fans/followers. Nico’s wrong race start selection happened on the out-lap and formation-lap, his on the racing start grid selection was correct and as I said could not have possibly been wrong with the race start of the line he got.

He must have known what setting he was selecting. The drivers surely dedicate plenty of time into learning the different settings on the steering wheels. The teams ensure that I imagine. Like you say we’ll never hear the truth but at least the radio ban has a bit of a positive effect for the neutrals anyway!

Well, Nico pulled off the overtake of the weekend around the outside of Lewis in T1 so it is perhaps not surprising he had no battery power left! I think it must be the first time in F1 history that the engine settings on a car are implicated as a contributing cause of a collision. Mr Road Safety at the FIA might find that interesting. There may be a case for no in car PU adjustment being allowed at all. The performance of the car could be determined perhaps by the pressure the driver puts on the throttle pedal and nothing else. It used to work well enough like that!

Tommo, I came to this site to make the same suggestion – was it the case that the different strat mode was selected by ROS on purpose because he knew it would give him some sort of short-lived boost that would allow him to jump HAM into turn 1 and then dial it back a bit later, but he just miscalculated how long he had and/or how close HAM would still be when it started harvesting? To my knowledge, there was no analysis as to how ROS managed to carry so much more speed around the outside of turn 1 – they both had a good start.

Does anyone with real knowledge here know what is expected at race start? Is the strat mode usually “full power” or is it something that has a bit more tolerance for a heavy foot to avoid wheelspin? If the latter, then ROS may have gambled on going for something that feeds more MGU-K energy initially and relying on managing the torque with his right foot – but then got caught out when the MGU-K started harvesting earlier than expected …

I see that according to the regs, “MGU-K may only be used during a race start once the car has reached 100km/h” – but that’s what, a few seconds in? Is it even possible that ROS selected a mode that delivered MGU-K energy too early according to the regs (whether intentionally or not)?

Note that I’m not making any value judgements on drivers, above. Whilst I might prefer one over the other in general, I was actually quite pleased about the incident – it gave us a fascinating race to watch. I’m sure the top four would have probably ended up doing pretty much the same thing, but it was better to know we were looking at a full podium battle and not just who could come “first of the losers” 😀

Not sure it was straight from the start as Hamilton actually seemed to have the better initial get away. Definitely something odd happened though. One for the conspiracy theorists to have some fun over anyway

they both had a good start but Rosberg had much better start that is why he was able to go round the outside. that, and up to that point it was only possible because Rosberg contrary to many believe and that is as a cause of the misleading blabs that has been pushed out Rosberg selected the right and correct settings for the lights-out (start). as an explanation to all the confusion caused by stating that Rosberg selected the wrong setting for the start see my other post on here explaining things up.

Tommo, You having watched SKY sports I don’t blame you for your opinion formation. but be assured that no one of the Mercedes drivers could have given himself more power at the start, and yes Rosberg was not in the wrong strategy mode at the lights-out race start.

Hey Guys, I sent that last post before seeing that you don’t like the name-calling and I agree it is childish but this Guy F1 Always loves to call me ‘moron ‘and ‘Dingbat’ simply because he does not agree with what I say.

Clearly he has a race complex about Lewis with all the ‘Bling Bling ‘nonsense……. Only just saying.

If you care to check your original posts, it was you that started calling a moron whoever called Lewis bling bling.

The reply was only to illustrate to you, who criticizes those that give your favorite driver nicknames, and yet are quick to jump on the bandwagon of name calling, the idea that it might be erm… ironic?, no, erm…sacrcastic?, no, hypocrite? Yeah, that might do it.

I thought dingbat has a nice ring to it, a bit of a lighter tone than lets say, moron?

This site is different to the, “sorry Judge, no intention for the free publicity”, James Allens, Joe Sawards similar sites etc, is precisely the leeway it gives it’s users compared to above mentioned sites. That’s what it makes it different and i enjoy reading the posts. The ones i agree with, and believe you me, also the ones that i don’t. There are people here with great insight and specially, sense of humor.

As to your claim of having a race complex, i frankly find it abhorrent. People like you and fortis always find a race agenda whenever the opinions go against Lewis. I wonder why? With the same train of thought you could find the same race complex for the ones that love Lewis.( do you like Lewis because because of his race? or you don’t like Lewis because of his race?)

Do you think the same way when people call Vettel finger boy, Nico brittany or cheatberg, Ricciardo Colgate kid? I doubt it.
Yet these and other drivers also have a race. Do they not? Is it a race complex too? …Only just saying.

I was listening to Lweis interview on Sky and he said that the setting is agreed upon so in my opinion Rosberg was in the wrong setting to give him a boost advantage because how else could he have carried all that speed to overtake on the outside. Lewis had a good getaway for once as well. I agree that Rosberg did it on purpose and breach of the agreement to give him an overtake boost but miscalculated how long he had to keep it hence he was running out of battery power and speed. that was why Lewis gathered so much speed and believed he had the speed/ momentum to overtake. He was not being aggressive. He was faster of the two and Rosberg blocked him as he has done before

a bucketfullofBS from those at the Lulu number one fanclub, at the start there cannot be any boost advantage given/gotten or whatever.
at the start all on the grid will select “race start” this is the best race start mode as allowed by the rules, this setting is all about the best level of diff setting selection for a start, throttle and clutch settings are not allowed. also all on the grid will select “max deployment” (max power) on their steering wheel rotary switch, while all will also be holding down the “free load” (boost) push button pushed. but at the actual lights off three things happens, one is, not all on the grid will have the beast reaction to the lights-off, and not all will have the best foot and hand fingertips sensitivity. two is, up too 100km/h no matter the highest deployment having been selected and the boost “free load” button being pushed, the mapping will prevent these modes from activating (up to 100km/h) as the rules only permit their deployment above 100km/h at the start (not applicable if starting from pit lane).

first, settings are not agreed upon, they are orders/instructions on how and what to use. second, for the “lights-out” race start Rosberg was not in the wrong setting, he was in the right setting, and be assured that there is no setting that can give Rosberg a boost that his team mate doesn’t have. the better speed off the line which Rosberg used to overtake round the outside was only due to better reaction to the lights off and also to better foot and hand finger tips sensitivity. about Rosberg running out of battery power, that was as a result of him selecting the wrong settings for what is called “race start preparation” this setting is used on the out lap to the grid and held up into formation lap up to the actual starting grid, where then actual race start settings are selected.

Seems Ricciardo is upset they changed his pit stop strategy, because it gace the advantage in the race to Verstappen.
On the Rosberg/Hamilton thing… when I first saw it I thought Rosberg had brake tested Hamilton, as the closing speed was so fast. But, after seeing the Davidson review of it, it is clear it was because Rosberg was running out of power. It is a shame Hamilton didn’t move left instead of right. However, Rosberg did seem to shut the door on Hamilton rather aggressively. I think in future races a certain amount of grudge/revenge might come into play, which will spice up the racing.

Riccardo upset….? You think I would be just a little bit peeved of if as a lead driver I was given a changed strategy like that. Not only did they swap him from a 2 to a 3 stop strategy but they also chose to leave him out 6 laps longer than Vettel losing around 1 sec a lap.

Thats not fair Cash555 they realy thought a 3 stop strategy was the winning one. Do you realy think they thought Verstappen could take a win after just a couple of hours in the car? It just went bad for Danny thats all.

Andrew mate don’t misinterpret the point I was making. I am and will take nothing away from Max’s victory… I like the kid, he’s fast, mature beyond his years and as long as his old man stays out of the picture I think he will amount to great things. But the actions of Red Bull are incorrigible and I have no doubt that that cancer within the team they call Dr Marko would have had his hand fair up inside of Christian Horners arse making a puppet out of him when the opportunity presented itself… You don’t hang your driver out for 6 laps losing a second a lap or more to his nearest rival… What is gunna sell the brand better “Riccardo wins in Spain after mercs fall over” or “Max smashes record books and claims Maiden win” it’s not rocket science mate…

while waiting for a pass on my last post, may I aske his Honour when is the missing “reply” on some of the posts being to be fixed, it is starting to look like answers to some posts are not wanted or welcomed.

I guess that’s a question of readability. WordPress Has the option to restrict how deep comments can be nested. Joe Saward has no restrictions, which means that on my iPhone, comments become unreadable, since they are only a single character wide.
L
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As has been pointed out, it’s a WordPress formatting thing. Simply go back up the conversation to the first reply button you find, reply to that commenter while addressing your comment to whomever you intend i.e., @salvuborg before you add the rest and it should show up same width under the last comment posted in that particular conversation

In the GP3 race yesterday, a driver was penalised for pulling the same move that Rosberg did, whilst on the home straight. He was forced so wide off the track, he ended up in the the start of the pitlane.

Article 27.7, which sets out what’s acceptable when defending on the straight, was as a result of what Schumacher did to Rubens in Hungary and Lewis in Monza of that same year.

Rosberg has a history of doing this, so for all those who say, “this is ROS finally standing up to Lewis”, then I’d like you watch the race in Bahrain 2012.

a driver is entitled to defend his position with one move only as long as the car trying to overtake is not regarded as being alongside (front wing level with rear wheels) in which case the defending driver should leave at least a car’s wide of tarmac.

I’ll start by saying, congratulations to Max, a great effort, though had Ferrari and Red Bull gone with 2 stops all round the race winner was going to be Ricciardo. Daniel – that’s how your Canada 2014 victory felt to Mr S Vettel – welcome to the flipside of that coin !

RE: Hamilton Rosberg. Here we go again. Racing incident? Yep, there was nothing malicious in it. That said I’m staggered by the number of British pundits who are trying to lay blame at Rosbergs door. Defending by covering the inside line is normal, Rosberg made it very very clear he was off in that direction as Hamilton approached. It matters not if Hamilton was going at warp speed and Rosberg was in neutral, by the time Lewis managed to get part of his front wing up the inside of Rosbergs rear wheel his trajectory had him hurtling towards the grass, Rosbergs car was in a grey area of having it’s front axle less than a cars width from the edge of the track and his rear more than it such was his angle. Lewis should have seen this coming and backed out of it, just like his incident with Jenson in Canada 2011 he didn’t he drove into a wedge that by the time he got there wasn’t big enough for an F1 car . That wedge made the gap Bottas drove into in Bahrain look like a vast caynon. Overall it was ill-conceived move from Lewis who is obviously feeling the pressure and Rosberg was robust in his defence having forgotten to press a button after the excitement of nailing a good move into T1.

“You must know that there are two ways to compete, the one by law, the other by force; the first method is proper to men, the second to breasts; but because the first is frequently not sufficient, it is necessary have recourse the second. Therefore it is necessary for a prince to understand how to avail himself of the beast and the man.”

2011 Jenson got a poor exit and Lewis was already alongside him, but he kept going left, despite that not being the racing line. It was also that very same year rule 27.7 came into effect, because of what Schumacher did to Rubens in Hungary.

When Lewis had his wing alongside Rosberg’s rear tire, he was still within th white lines of the circuit and the rule states that in such a situation, the driver should be given enough racing room, Rosberg didn’t do that.

Bullshit about ROS 2.0… He has a history of doing this, watch the race in Bahrain 2012, where he did it to both Alonso and Lewis and the stewards then let him off.

First up, JB didn’t know Lewis was there in 2011, and Jenson simply drove the racing line. Lewis didn’t account for conditions and failed to back out of a situation where the gap he was going for was shrinking. For that reason Jenson wasn’t punished for the incident. The reason it’s worth mentioning however is because it’s evidence of Hamilton not backing out of a move that is obviously going to fail.

Next, whilst Lewis did indeed have his front wing momentarily alongside Rosbergs rear wheel it was just that, it was there for maybe a tenth. It’s unreasonable and unrealistic to expect Rosberg to leap out of the way in that short space of time. The average human has a reaction time is greater than that. Yet you expect him to react and have moved his car in that time, that’s delusional I’m afraid. Additionally Nico had already closed off room at the front of his car to less than a cars width. The stewards correctly call this a racing incident as 27.7 can’t and won’t apply for situations like this, it would make a mockery of the sport if it did. For Rosberg to have avoided this incident he would have had to stop defending prior to Lewis getting his front wing alongside the rear wheel of his car. For Lewis to avoid incident he could and probably should have backed out of the move once he saw Rosberg was going to defend the inside line – he didn’t, just like Canada he drove into a shrinking gap. Ironically that’s exactly what Bottas did, and whilst Bottas was a lower speed incident with far more warning for the defending driver the Finn was penalised for it.

Finally Bahrain 2012, I recall this race well. Rosberg didn’t do anything wrong. He wasn’t penalised by the stewards, because just like this situation by the time Lewis got his front wing alongside the Germans rear tyre he was on course to visit the scenery (which he did and overtook Nico off the track). Alonso complained too, but the Spaniard didn’t get any proportion of his Ferrari on the inside of the Nicos car. The stewards called it correctly.

Essentially Nico defended strongly, Lewis drove into a wedge that wasn’t wide enough for his car by the time he got there.

To be honest though Fortis I knew you’d defend Lewis, you always do, in every scenario, whatever his actions or words, whether he is right or wrong, your defence is the constant that never changes – you’re not Martin Brundle are you?

Fortis, worth listening to Paul here. Sometimes you really should just try to see the event from more than one point of view. You’re just harking back to an event from 4 years ago which has clearly lingered in your mind for some time. One instance is hardly much of a history, is it? Although I believe it would be somewhat unfair to award a penalty or any form of repercussion to Hamilton, you can see that he clearly should have backed out of that move. Nico was never going to leave the door open. You are entertaining though, Fortis. I do enjoy your Hamfosi stance sometimes, I must admit. Anyway, if one can’t see a Ros 2.0 or whatever, they should get their eyes checked. He’s put manners on Lewis in 3 races this season alone.

Yea says the man who has a criticism for Hamilton even when the articles written has nothing to do with him. So yea, excuse me for not willing to bow to all your superior knowledge and intellectual abilities.

Yeah Salu borg and F1 Always, I bet us Hammy supporters ( of which I am proud) have supported him the beginning of his F1 Career far longer than you have supported Rosberg . I bet you had never even heard of Rosberg until Lewis went to Mercedes .

I bet if Lewis moved to Ferrari and became Vettel’s teammate , all of sudden you would become ardent Vettel supporters and drop Rosberg like a hot brick. Anyone but Hamilton. Smile ..come on tell the truth. You hate the guy because he does not look like you. That’s the truth but you don’t want to admit it . That’s why he is always in the wrong in your book.

Hey Odd ball . ( good name ) Are you for real ??? You live in a fantasy world or need to get in the real world bruv. Have you never read the things said about Hamilton and the blatant double standards ? How everything he says or does is examined under a microscope . It’s because he looks different from the average European man and many feel just on that basis alone he is inferior and they hide their bigoted remarks as if it is genuine criticism.

“looks?” that’s a silly comment indeed. but now that you have mentioned “looks” I would certainly not like looking like a printed circuit board and with an infection of the footinmouthdisease to boost.

He also did it in Canada 2014. Watch the start of the race . Rosberg on pole /Lewis second .Lewis tries to overtake and Rosberg forces him onto the grass. This guy is dangerous and will kill someone one day . He has no race craft whatsoever!!!

Interesting race but nothing spectacular. Not a fan of this course and most difficult to pass courses. Also saw the Mercedes incident as racing incident but would say that Rosberg, as has been mentioned already, has a history of driving people off the road in defense before a corner (as opposed to say at a corner, particular hairpins, where a driver attempting to pass another on the outside is often moved off the road because the driver on the inside, because of momentum, has to take a line that will disappear). I couldn’t care less how each driver feels about the other, what drivers do outside of F1 and for the most part, what they say, as the response from both drivers seemed entirely scripted.

That said, I did like Ricciardo’s response to being told Vettel complained about his passing attempt. Just one word, “Typical”. Nice.

F1 Always. I have read your long post and questioning why I like Lewis. I have nothing against Rosberg. I just think he has been over hyped by people who don’t like Lewis for their own reasons. If you notice Lewis fans never mock Rosberg’s life outside F1 such as the clothes he wears , his car , his wife, or anything NEVER. But Lewis everything he does is poured over, Every word is scrutinized. He has tattoo’s, so has Kevin Magnusson and Kimi but are they ever mentioned? NO. Lewis likes R N B music as someone said a while ago on this site .So what? So do most black people I know and many whites as well . What’s wrong with R N B music unless you ain’t got no rhythm? The list goes on and on and I feel sorry for our Lewis because he is the only black guy on the scene and you can see the double standards and the blatant bigotry from the media and people like you pretending you have valid opinions when we can all see that there is a secret agenda.This bullshit about racism being abhorrent or what ever. Please give me a break …..Hypocrisy is even worse.

Lewis can come across as cocky once in a while but all talented drivers like Alonso and Vettel are cocky. It goes with the territory.

Like many, I believe Lewis is far more exciting and far superior racer than Rosberg . His 3 WDC is testimony to that y’all 🙂

hey haha i haven`t been here for a while!
i would like to share my humble thoughts on this
when i was a racer we used to think that if i`m on the lead, suck it up, i`ll do whatever is in my ability (or lack of) to stop you, so you better outwit me, out run me, out class me, but taking both of us in the process may be a macho statement but not a really clever move.
there was a great champion that said a race isn`t won on the first lap but when the checkered flag is waved. so if someone attributes certain drivers with certain abilities one very important would be to have brains to figure this simple truth, to win you have to finish, eh? not rocket science
this goes for the two starlets, 20 years ago they would have been really really well dead by the shit they pull on track, but video simulator f1 allows these dumbass moves
anyways reading comments i laughed a little but felt very sorry too
there is a lot of insult, calling racism, etc. this happens only with lh because he is the only black out there, but also because “he” has played this card (along with being poor – and christian, a thing that he does not have a fucking clue what is about)
i move a petition for the age of the poster (verified) to be shown behind or below the username.
cheers.
pete

@ol old fart ..fully agree and Sorry for highjacking the post Matt55 and TJ13 but this needs to be said. That is a very sad post and one i can’t get my head around but please hold with me. As with many i have followed F1 for over 40yrs and I have seen many people arrive and leave the sport but even with the shameful barrier that many countries held in the past for minorities F1 has held its head high. Teams have a simple rule,if you can do your job,your hired. It didn’t matter if you had 4heads or 6 eyes as if it made their machines a tad quicker then you found yourself in a team and that is the key..team. F1 is bigger than just one driver and is a huge employer of underprivileged individuals with many apprenticeships available at some of the biggest names of the sport so please people,these views are not welcome here. It’s a shame such a view exists and that anyone believes that someone’s background has a bearing on their ability.
The reason that many youngsters can’t break into F1 is simple…money, you can be the greatest driver that ever lived and still find yourself stuck in formula Ford or at best GP2, there are many other groups that need drivers but the highest held are the 20+ that land on our screens on a Sunday so the comp is huge, for every Lewis or Senna that break into the sport there are a hundred Jake hill’s waiting.
Every one screams that Lewis is the first driver to make it,and I agree that he is in F1 but don’t forget the achievements of Willy Ribbs, he managed to drive in a time that was shameful but arrived in the UK to pursue the dream,he had no help from a front running team and the mountain he had to climb was something that I couldn’t even imagine let alone emark on the journey but he left his stamp on the sport.
The problem Lewis has is that he came into the sport with McLaren and he lost his identity, he was covered in PR praise and lifted up to the world and touted as the next king. Alonso wasn’t pleased, the followers of other teams held views and so did many fans, here was a kid that has been pushed into a front running team and hasnt had to go through the rights of passage,he was the chosen one and many didn’t like it..IMHO Max is going to have the same problem,people expect so much from a young person and they are at risk of believing the pr hype… Be humble is what I am saying.
Lewis has now broken the corporate mould, he has finally been allowed to express his own views but being the top driver(he is the WDC chaps so please don’t shoot me) he is going to face extra pressure from the press pack. Every move will be torn apart and Lewis does love to play this game, he is great at presenting himself to the world and showing his style. So guys and gals, if a driver wants to show their wealth and wear enough gold to shame a pharo then please allow them to do so because once a helmet it covering those features it could be Donald duck under there..as long as they drive like they stole the cars we don’t care about background.